Chapter 57 |
In Hatake Kakashi's consideration, there were four kinds of secrets in the world.
There were open secrets that were there for anyone to find, but you just needed to not speak of them in public. Dangerous for the fact it was prone to rumor corruption just on the basis of how much it was bounced around. It got blown out of proportion or was just a conclusion someone jumped to with little to no evidence.
Much like the "secret" that he had slept with Orochitama. Completely baseless and, fankly, insulting in nature. It was incideous in how he could not contradict it without seeming more guilty.
Though, admittedly, his present situation would greatly inflame those rumors, as he laid dressed wearing only a fundoshi, his mask, and his headband while Orochitama ran brushes dipped in cool ink across his body in carefully controlled lines. The seal-work was a long and complicated process at the best of times, and the presence of the pale buxom beauty leaning over him with tantalizing views had certain effects, particularly as she often put her face extremely close to her work, her breath brushing past his skin. It was not lost on him what this all looked like. There would be a very visible reaction about all of this if there were not another contributing factor.
"Your lines are too close here! It's going to cause interference in the yang spiral at his third rib!" Jiraiya said, putting his own head close to the sealwork. His breath was equally as warm, but had very different reactions. The Toad Sannin was fulfilling his job as auditor of the Snake Woman's work, but he mostly seemed intent on finding anything and everything wrong with the woman.
"The lines are exactly far enough apart. It's fifteen millimeters away." Orochitama responded. She'd shown a great amount of patience with the fifteenth interruption in the last thirty minutes. Though her replies were growing more curt and her eye was beginning to twitch.
"Hwah? In what world is that fifteen millimeters?" Jiraiya demanded, leaning in close enough that his hair draped onto Kakashi's torso and eyeballed the offending spot.
"You have a ruler." Orochitama replied tightly.
The second kind of secret was the kind that was concealed on accident. That you needed to know the circumstances and people involved to figure out what was going on. A secret that no one at all knows, not even the parties involved. Possibly the most useful kind of secret, as it is the one of the easiests to apply pressure on as it was revealed.
He certainly couldn't claim an understanding of women, much less the figure that was Orochitama, but he had the context to know that she cared about this situation going well. That she had a complex relationship with Jiraiya. If the woman was to be believed, she got all of Orochimaru's good memories about the man as well as the bad, but most of the bad was Orochimaru being the asshole of the situation. Jiraiya on the other hand had felt a huge amount of bitterness and hurt that was left to fester in him for decades. The man had spent years looking for an opportunity to take out the monster he managed to let slip away from him. Then suddenly, all he had to put those emotions on were this dubious woman that claimed and denied those ties in equal measure.
There was a big part of Jiraiya that wanted the snake woman to be up to no good, if only to defend himself from liking her, because she was exactly the sort of woman Jiraiya would have gone crazy over if she were literally anyone else.
"Did you change out the ruler I was using?" Jiraiya demanded after checking the measurement and finding himself wrong.
Orochitama just stared at the man with intensity until he huffed and turned away, allowing Orochitama to begin again.
It was good the man let it go, because otherwise Kakashi would have started to lose his patience on the man. There was no one alive that he respected more, but his personal feelings on the situation were becoming grating with Kakashi being the one that was actually going to be the one putting his life on the line. Not just his life, but his identity. He was placing a whole other being into himself. A biju, that were known to be rage and malice incarnate. He'd seen multiple jinchuriki lose themselves and cause devastation to enemy and ally alike. People were afraid of jinchuriki for damn good reason. Being made into one was a subject of a few horror stories he'd heard growing up, and that was even before-
"I'll protect you, even if it kills me." The last words echoed through his head. The only jinchuriki he'd personally killed. His last teammate and friend.
Here he was. Putting that same creature inside himself. Following Rin's footsteps.
He turned his head to regard Orochitama as she continued to paint onto him, and he wondered again if she was doing this out of cruelty, misplaced kindness, or if she was just ignorant. The last one was unlikely, as the woman seemed to know every secret and he doubted she missed his own history with this particular tailed beast.
He couldn't read much from the woman; or he read too much. He could never quite be certain. She certainly emoted and communicated an intended emotion quite often, but they hardly made sense and he was reasonably sure she only communicated the emotions she wanted to communicate, not necessarily what she felt. She slipped into pouty, happy, regretful, and lustful at the drop of a hat as it served her best.
She'd given an answer and seemed regretful before, but he didn't know if he completely beleived it. Paranoia kept ninja alive after all.
"That symbol isn't-" Jiraiya began again, but Orochitama's hand smashed onto the table, making the whole thing rattle. The woman held back, considering the solid oak didn't crack or splinter.
"For fuck's sake Jiraiya," Orochitama shouted, cutting the man off. "Stop being a passive aggressive bitch about it and say what your actual problem is."
"My problem is that I don't trust you," Jiraiya snapped back, jamming a finger in Orochitama's face.
"You've worked with plenty of people you didn't trust and have never been this pissy about it," Orochitama shot down immediately, "Man up and say what's really bothering you or shut the hell up and let me do my work."
"You are a traitor. You have betrayed us before. It wasn't a matter of just betraying the state. You betrayed the only people that ever cared for you. You weren't in a bad situation, you MADE a bad situation. You had EVERY opportunity to be the beloved hero of Konoha that everyone looked up to, yet you spat on it. You didn't even need to be a traitor while doing it? All the science you were researching could have been studied by providing you with captured enemy soldiers or criminals. It will would have been fucked up, but it wouldn't have made you a traitor like that."
"You're absolutely right. It was stupid. The science wasn't even good science. It was inefficient and the equivalent of throwing a bunch of shit at a wall to see what stuck. Innocent people died for no good reason, and I relished in their pain and deaths. I enjoyed their screams. I mixed my sadism and curiosity to satisfy a dark part of myself. Not trusting me is valid. It's expected." The woman spelled out offhandedly, admitting to mistakes freely and casually.
Very different from when she had admitted to mistakes with him. Then she seemed nothing but remorseful. The ditached and dispassionate way she did it now was what Jiraiya needed to see. Any amount of regret she displayed would have been written off by the Toad Sage as a manipulation, so she presented it in the way he needed to see it to have any possibility of accepting it. It worked too, Jiraiya only looked at her with surprise.
The woman jammed a finger into Jiraiya's chest, looking up to the man's face as she pressed the silence to her advantage. "We both know things have changed since then though. You aren't the same person you were and we both know for damn sure I'm not. You have a choice. Are you going to work with me and allow me to do this, or aren't you? I'm giving one of the mightest weapons in the world and putting it on the one person in the world it might do the most good. In exchange, I'm just asking we don't go to war and all kill each other."
Jiraiya's face flashed through a series of emtions. These were things he already knew, but his emotion wanted a confrontation, a resolution about this. She was laying out that there wouldn't be one.
"How do I know this isn't some plan to fuck us over in the end?" Jiraiya said, voice low but filled with emotion as the implication of "how do I know you won't hurt me that way again," being left unsaid.
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"You don't. But we're already in bed together. Either fuck, or stop wasting my time." Orochitama responded.
An odd metaphor for the situation, but one precisely picked to have the most effect on Jiraiya. The man had a lot of complex feelings about the woman, but he was still The Super Pervert. He was very aware of what Orochitama put on display and it was only the same complex emotions that gave him his misgivings that prevented him from acting on the teasing the Reborn Snake was laying down.
The Toad Sage's face grew bright red and he blustered and flailed his arms before jamming his own accusing finger back into the woman's face.
"I- you listen here- I know you were using your looks to-" he shouted, but abruptly cut off Orochitama opened her mouth, leaned forward, and sucked on the pointing finger loudly.
Jiraiya yanked his hand back like she burnt him, face now completely crimson. A long silence descended on the room.
"I will complete my work now. Why don't you get us something to drink and you can examine my work when I'm done." Orochitama said, all prim and proper like she hadn't just gave felatio to a finger.
"Fine! But only because that was weird as hell!" Jiraiya was clearly struggling to have the emotions he wanted at the forefront of his brain.
"Please. That was practically vanilla. If you keep things up though, I'll show you weird." Orochitama continued with the same clinical and dispassionate voice.
Jiraiya stared at her again for a moment, not believing his eyes before he wordlessly turned around and marched towards the door, slamming it behind him as he left.
The raven haired woman heaved a sigh and turned back to Kakashi to continue her work. Everything lapsed into silence that he could have just let be, but he couldn't help but feel the need to break it. After all, she seemed intent on knowing all his personal information and radically change his understanding of his life and world. It was only fair he got to satiate his curiosity.
"You had avoided flirting with him before that. What changed?" Kakashi asked.
To her credit, the woman's brushwork stayed consistent and steady, not reacting at all to his question. She finished an intricate series of loops before backing up and answering. "It got me what I want. He's a problem I don't know how to deal with, so I did what I knew would work."
It sounded like an honest answer, but Kakashi found himself doubtful. "It also could have gotten you want you want earlier. What changed? Why didn't you do it before then?"
She gave a humorless laugh. "You're right I suppose. There is a reason I'm insisting this go to you. You are very talented in almost every aspect of being a ninja."
Kakashi waited to see if she would continue as the woman dabbed her brush in ink once again and began to paint the intricate seal that would put a manifistation of his trauma into him.
"I recognize that my old team has a lot of complex feelings about me and who I used to be. Mostly negative. I care about them though, something the Orochimaru of old lost somewhere along the way. But I remember caring for them. I remember them caring for me. I can't change what part of me has done, but I can be respectful towards them. He's right, I can easily manipulate them, but I don't want to. I'm trying to be as forthright about this as I can be."
He again questioned if she was just saying what she needed to. It sounded like a compelling argument that he would accept, but she also wanted him to think of her as a person just trying to do what is right in a messed up world. She very well might be just that, but the state of the world made it difficult to trust. She had clearly been trying to earn his trust ever since she showed back up in Wave.
She was doing a damn good job of it too. The woman had her reasons for being there, but she didn't need to loop them in on what was going on. In fact, it probably would have been easier for the woman to get everything she wanted by just killing everyone involved before Mai ever showed up. Zabuza was too weak at first and she could have literally torn Gato's lair apart to find what she wanted. Instead, she felt it important to let things play out, to get close to him and his team. To give genuinely good advice to his students about being a ninja and about life in general.
It would have served her next plan better if they didn't know to be suspicious of her and connect her to that fair and the shows she put on. No one would have thought to go looking for Orochitama in the first place. Jiraiya wouldn't have had his fight with her. She could have prioritized laying low, but she made contact with him and his team.
For the life of him, he couldn't figure out why except that what was happening now was her plan the entire time.
The third kind of secret was the kind you shared with very select people. Your commanding officers. Your close friend. Your spouse. The ones you know would do what they need to with that secret while keeping it a secret. Ninjas had hundreds of them. So many that you start to get casual at information that could destroy lives and start wars. They became so common in your thoughts you had to stop sharing any information at all, lest something slip through.
"When did you decide that you would try to get the Three Tails sealed inside me?" He asked.
"During Wave." She responded simply. "I was already planning on taking out the Mizukage, but that's why I tracked down Zabuza. I wanted him to help me train my people and I figured I could get him on board with finishing the job. The point was the money and saving the people of Wave. He was a bonus. It genuinely surprised me to find out he had a connection with the rebellious faction still in the village. Once I realized I had the opportunity, I figured I'd find a way to get them to cooperate with me. I went there knowing I'd have access to the Three Tails and I needed someone to put him in. It was while there I could clearly see your skill, held back only by your average chakra pool."
"So you approached to get me prepared for this."
She gave a disdainful huff. "Hardly. I approached for the exact reason I signaled you about on my arrival. I was operating in the area and it's polite to say something so we can stay out of each other's way. You had kids with you. I didn't want this blowing up in their faces since I was bound to piss more than a few people off."
Once again, that would be what he would want her reason to be. Though this time his paranoia about it wasn't strong. Sure, the woman might have machinations on one of his students, but she paid all of them close attention. If she'd singled any one of them out and showered them with praise and affection and promises of power she very well might have been able to tempt one of them away or into whatever scheme she wanted. She also did treat them like kids. When most people faked being nice, they tended to treat people mostly the same. Orochitama had a noticably different way of treating children than she did anyone else.
"So, it was just about turning me into the best weapon possible against Akatsuki?"
"Akatsuki is a problem, and it is one of the main reasons I'm doing this, but I am not arming a weapon. I am making an alliance." She stood upright and folded her arms over her bust. He found himself wondering if she subconsciously hid her cleavage when she was saying something serious so men wouldn't get distracted. "I want to stress this again Kakashi. You nor Isobu are weapons. You both have feelings and get to decide your own purpose in life. I'm choosing you because you can use this well, but also because you can see the Sanbi for what he is. You have an opportunity to make a statement here. You are in a unique position where you can make a biju trust you."
Kakashi thought on her implication and an answer jumped out to him. Rin's death was very classified, so he couldn't share much about the situation, but he was confident she knew what he meant if he spoke in generalities.
"He was there. He remembers me." Kakashi guessed.
Orochitama nodded. "You are a person in this world that he can understand hating him. If you can forgive him, if you can treat him like a friend, then perhaps he can be asked to give a damn about the same humanity that treated him poorly for the last several centuries."
At last, he saw the point. It wasn't about his power, though he was certain that didn't hurt. She chose him based on his character.
He wasn't sure she was right.
"What makes you think you're right about me being able to do that?" He asked.
She smirked at him. A wry and knowing look. "You're Naruto's teacher. With him around, how could you not?"
Of all the answers possible, that was certainly not one he suspected. He thought she'd say something about Minato or the Will of Fire. Concepts he held close and likely would have worked on him. Choosing to go with Naruto was...well he wasn't sure why she would do that.
The final kind of secret was the kind that was too vital, too personal to share. Something that you never breathed a word of so that no one ever knew. Secrets you took to your grave because it was too great a sin for them to ever get out.
As the woman uttered her confidence in his ability to make peace with malevolence, she continued a line down his leg and onto his ankles and he found that she might soon find one of those secrets. Something so personal, he'd insured no one had ever found out about. A secret so personal, he knew it would damn him forever if it were revealed.
"Why Naruto?" He asked.
"He's a good kid. He understands your situation. You can help each other. That boy is in the center of very big and very important things. He'll learn to forgive and overcome the cycle of hatred, or he won't and the world will keep on killing each other forever. I think he's got what it takes though."
Kakashi raised a doubtful brow. Naruto was many things. He had a decent shot at becoming a powerful ninja. He was a jinchuriki of the Kyubi after all. Putting him on a pedestal of being able to overcome the cycle of hatred though was a bit much. Admittedly, the more he trained the brat, the more he did think the kid could possibly become Hokage, but that didn't have anything to do with genuine talent and intelligence.
"He's rough, but he'll get there." Orochitama said dismissively as she continued to brush down across his foot. He did his level best to prevent it from twitching.
"I'm not speaking poorly of him. He has promise for sure. He just isn't much of what most think a ninja should be." Kakashi said, keeping his voice as measured as possible.
Orochitama stopped her brush movement to make eye contact with him. She smiled sweetly. "Kakashi. That's exactly why he'll succeed."
Perhaps...she was correct. Perhaps he had been trying to make Naruto too much into what he considered a ninja should be? He'd have to rethink-
His foot twitched as the snake woman continued her brushstroke. He froze. Perhaps she didn't notice? Or think of why? No. The brush had stopped. Her grin was growing feral.
She knew.
"Kakashi. Are your feet ticklish?" Her voice was downright giddy.
"...no," he tried.
Her fingers began to dance with light touches over the bottom of his foot and the Kakashi fought for his life.
"Holy shit you are!"
This was a bad idea. Hope of the world could burn. No one must know.
"Is this one ticklish too!?"
"No! Stop!"
